Beating of the Drums
by Hazel n' Blue
Summary: Written after "The Rite of Passage" the team is going home and realizes that Emily can barely hear anything. All goes wrong when they land and gun shots are going off around them. What will happen to Emily and the team? Please Read and Review :D
1. Beyond the Passage

We do not own Criminal Minds, though if we did Hotch and Emily would've gotten together by now :D

Ok this story is supposed to take place after the episode The Rite of Passage (hence the title). I loved the episode so much I thought what the hell eh? This is to do with Emily getting her ear drums blown out. I was pissed at the writers for not putting anything about the condition of her ears so I thought I should write this. I wrote this mostly by myself and my sister helped with little details and things along the way. She's super new to this so please read and review. We'd both appreciate it!

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ON THE PLANE

Everybody had just arrived on the plane and took their regular seats. Emily's ears had been killing her for the last few hours. She was still mad at Morgan because she could barely hear anything. The rest of the team didn't realize the extent of her hearing loss, but she really hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as Hotch's hearing problem.

"So…that was a bad case," Morgan said trying to start a conversation

"Ya think?" Rossi said

"At least we caught the guy," JJ said

"But the sheriff died," Reid said

"And Morgan nearly blew out Emily's ear drums," Hotch said

"Speaking of Emily's ear drums, how are they doing Em?" JJ asked. Emily was having a hard time keeping up with the conversation because she was overtaken with pain. It also didn't help that she had to rely mostly on her lip reading skills which were not that great. She barely made out what JJ said

"They're ummm… okay?" She said unsure of herself

"Can you hear?"

"Ya,"

"Really Em? Because you haven't been looking at our eyes, you've been looking at our lips," JJ said causing everybody in the plane to look at her with worry written all over their faces.

"Ya I'm fine," she lied, her ears where burning now

"Emily, when I was in the explosion and hurt my ears I tried to cover it up but it didn't help because all of you knew and all you guys wanted to do was to help me. When I didn't let you in, it just got worse for me, until I realized that I needed help. I really do not want you to make the same mistake that I made," Everyone on the plane was surprised at his confession; he had never said anything that personal to any of them. Emily thought about the statement and nodded agreeing with Hotch. She looked up into the concerned eyes of her team, she really did need to tell them because she needed help and she really didn't want to not be able to hear. She took a deep breath and admitted her true feelings.

"Ever since the shooting, my ears have been burning, it wasn't so bad at first just a bit of ringing you know? Then it got a lot worse, I can barely hear any of you right now," JJ gasped at the degree of Emily's hearing. Morgan slumped down beside Emily on the couch, showered in guilt and put his head in his hands.

"God Em, I'm so sorry," She couldn't hear him properly because he was talking in a low voice. But after so many years of working together she understood what he was saying.

"Morgan, this isn't your fault," She said. Morgan, whose head was still down looked up with wide eyes. She knew he was going to argue against her previous statement, gently put her hand under his chin and tilted his head towards her so she had a better chance of hearing him, but knowing Morgan he was probably going to start yelling.

"What do you mean this isn't my fault! I was the one who shot out at the guy when you said you had him!"

"I was wrong, Morgan I couldn't handle him, he was coming at us too fast and… you did the right thing," Morgan replaced his head in his hands and thought about what Emily had just said. Of course it would be Emily who would defend another person's actions after almost deafening her. The entire plane was silent; all thinking about the events that were surely to come.

"Whether or not Morgan caused this you still need to be looked at," Rossi said breaking the ice. "To make sure that nothing is permanent," Everybody nodded at this. They had already gone through this once with Hotch, they weren't going to let it happen again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen please take your seats, your plane is landing," The pilot said over the speakers.

"We should probably follow the pilot's orders," Hotch said

"Well the odds of us getting injured are…"

"Okay, we're sitting!" JJ said pulling Reid down into a seat, stopping him from going on with his statistic. Everyone sat down preparing themselves for they're landing. They were almost on the ground when Reid noticed something.

"Did you guys hear that?" Reid asked

"Reid I can barely hear what you're saying so no," Emily said sarcastically

"What did you hear?" Morgan asked

"I'm not sure; I'm not even sure, never mind,"

"Okay, but tell us if you hear it again,"

"I will," The plane landed and the pilot said it was okay to get out, so that's what the BAU team did, Emily promising she would get her ears checked out the first possible opportunity she had. They were almost all off the plane when they heard a loud noise coming from the distance.

"Was that the noise you heard earlier?" Hotch asked Reid quickly, Reid nodded as Hotch pulled out his gun, the rest of the team followed in suit.

"That's a gun shot," Morgan said. _"Crap,"_ Emily thought_ "Hearing a gunshot this soon after having my ear drums burst probably isn't good," _

Emily had thought that two teenagers, probably around seventeen or so came around the plane shooting at each other. The sound from the guns was ear shattering for Emily, so painful for her ears that she collapsed to the ground covering her ears with her hands. The rest of the team were so concentrated on the scene in front of them, they didn't realize that Emily was down.

"FBI, put you're hands up!" Hotch yelled at the boys. They weren't listening to Hotch though; both of them were too caught up with each other.

"FBI! Put the guns down," Hotch roared over the screeching bullets against the concrete. The group moved more towards the shooters, still not realizing Emily was on the ground trying to hold back pain as the bullets went in every direction. Emily was now by herself on the ground when she heard someone come up from behind her. She rolled onto her back just in time to see a teen point a 45 caliber gun at her face. She tried to yell out to her team but they were too busy trying to apprehend the other two people.

"Why are you on the ground instead of helping your team?" The kid asked bringing the gun closer to her, as she slowly moved her hand towards her own gun, which was currently in its holster. Emily didn't answer, after a few seconds to think the teen came to a realization "You're bait" Emily looked at him with questioning eyes, which made him more angry "You stayed here so that I would go up to you and they would arrest me!" This theory was obviously not right but after several years studying human behavior she realized that nothing she said was going to satisfy him.

"Yes that's it! That's it!" the man said. Emily's hand was on top of her holster and opening it, she just hoped she could get it out and ready before this teen got more aggravated.

"What are you doing?" another teen said approaching the two of them

"This bitch is trying to have me arrested! She's baiting me, and I can't let her get away with it!"

"Coop, I doubt she's baiting you, I don't even think she can move,"

"She's part of the damn Feds! She is bait!"

"Okay, even if she is, what are you going to do? Kill her?" The teen that was moving closer and closer to Emily nodded then smiled

"Cooper, are you out of your mind! You can't murder a cop!"

"Watch me," he said as he lifted his gun and pointed it at Emily.

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So Megan and I have been meaning to post this for a while but haven't gotten around to it because of exams and stuff, but hopefully over the summer we'll be able to update frequently :D

Please read and review, we love reading them

Amy & Megan

P.S Sorry if you find any grammar/spelling problems we're still pretty young


	2. We All Fall Down

WE DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS!

Hey! its Megan, A.K.A. Blue :) Hope you like this Chapter! Pleez review!

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"_Cooper, are you out of your mind! You can't murder a cop!" _

"_Watch me," he said as he lifted his gun and pointed it at Emily. _

Emily knew she had just enough time to act before this boy shot her. She swung out her gun which she had already had half way out of its holster. She quickly brought it up to his body and pulled the trigger. As soon as the bullet left the chamber a scream came out from her mouth as well as the other two boy's mouths. The bullet struck the boy square in the chest as he fell to the ground heaving in pain. Emily's scream continued because of the massive pain in her ears. She tried to stay strong on the plane but this was completely different. She was so over taken by pain she didn't realize that the shooting around her had stopped.

THE TEAM 

After getting off the plane the team was met with two teenage boys shooting bullets everywhere. Hotch and the team surrounded them and tried to calm the boys down, afraid that somebody was going to get hurt.

"Trevor what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm doing what has to be done Corey"

"What? Shooting me?"

"You killed Chloe,"

"What the hell? No I didn't!"

"FBI! Put you're hands up!" Hotch yelled at the kids

"You killed her!"

"I didn't, I swear!"

"Put the guns down!" Hotch yelled the kids ignored him, once again.

"I didn't kill Chloe! She killed herself!"

"What the fuck are you talking about? You were the one driving the car!"

"No I wasn't," Corey sighed, he knew it would come down to this "Trev I wasn't the one driving…she was. We were both drunk but I was more. She offered to drive and I got in the passenger side. We didn't see the car coming through the intersection at us. Look Trevor I'm really sorry she's dead but that's no reason to kill me okay?" Trevor was startled with this new piece of information and he slowly put his gun down making it easy for Morgan to run up to him and slap handcuffs on him.

"I'm sorry Trevor, I'm really sorry." Corey said as he walked towards the rest of the team.

"Please give me you're gun," Hotch said to Corey. He handed it over willingly.

"I'm really sorry about Trevor, his girlfriend died last week and he thought it was my fault, which it was partially but it's not like I need him to rub it in my face or anything,"

"Kid I think he was doing more then rubbing it into your face," Morgan said coming up to them with a smile on his face.

"You have a point there;" Corey looked at Reid and asked "Am I in trouble?"

"Well you were endangering the lives of others but not too much,"

"Thanks,"

"Hey where's Emily?" JJ asked. The team looked around for her but couldn't see her

"She was right behind us when we got off the plane," Rossi said anxiously. Just then they heard a single gun shot followed by three different voices screaming. They all sprinted towards where the noise was coming from and what they found was breathtaking. There was a teenager standing over Emily and another boy with blood gushing out from his chest.

"Oh my god," JJ said rushing over to her friend not even worrying to draw her gun, knowing that the rest of her team would have her back.

"Em, you okay?" She asked. Emily didn't respond instead continued to scream

"Reid call for a paramedic!" Morgan yelled. Hotch bent down beside Emily, putting his arms around her trying to comfort her. She pulled out at the touch and screamed louder

"Emily shhhh…Em it's just me, it's Hotch. It's okay you'll be fine, shhhh," She quieted down a little bit knowing that her team, her family was around her and safe. While Hotch and JJ attended to Emily, Morgan and Rossi went over to the boy who was standing up and Reid went to check if the other boy had stopped breathing by now. He put to fingers up against the boy's bloody neck and felt no pulse. He shook his head at the two men on the team and got up, going over to them.

"He's gone,"

"Kid, what the hell happened?" Morgan asked the teen boy

"I didn't do anything I swear!"

"Son, we're not worried about you going to jail or not we just want to know why you're friend is dead and our friend is screaming in pain," Rossi said

"I wasn't here for all of it," He paused breathing deeply before he continued "When I came here I found my friend Cooper pacing along you're friend who was on the ground. She looked like she was in a lot of pain. Well Coop, being the paranoid he is, thought that you made her bait so that you could come around and arrest him, look I tried to stop him, I really did, but he wouldn't listen," The teen looked over at his friend and tears formed in his eyes but he quickly wiped them away. What would Coop say if he saw his best friend crying?

"What happened next?" Reid asked

"Well Cooper was just about to shoot you're friend when she pulled out her own gun from her pocket and shot him. Then she screamed worse then she's screaming right now, what's wrong with her anyway? I mean she didn't get shot or anything did she?"

"No, it's a long story," Morgan said hanging his head just a little bit

"What's you're name?" Reid asked the boy

"Matt, Matt Peterson,"

"Ok Matt the police are going come and probably take you back to their station. You'll probably have to give them a statement but from what you've told us I don't think you'll be charged with anything."

"Uh, ok, thanks guys,"

"No problem," Rossi said "Hey, the ambulance is here," The three men ran over to Emily.

"The ambulance is here," Reid announced. Hotch nodded and returned all his attention back on to Emily.

"Em, the paramedics are here, ok? They're going to take you now," Emily, who was currently in Hotch's arms didn't want to move. Other then the immense pain in her ears, she was very comfortable.

"Emily you have to move, 'kay?" JJ said knowing what her best friend was thinking "I know you're comfortable but the doctors have to fix the pain in you're ears. You have to go with them," But Emily just continued to scream. Hotch wound up moving her because she seemed unable. Hotch carried Emily, like he would a baby, into the gurney. The paramedics got the gurney into the back of the ambulance truck with Emily on it, still screaming. JJ and Hotch climbed into the back of the ambulance after Emily had. The rest of the team had to stay behind.

In the ambulance with everything going a hundred miles per second, all Emily could hear was Hotch saying "It'll be all right,"

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Thank you all so much for reviewing the last chapter! Megan and I love reviews, they are our motivation :D

We hope that you like this chapter as much as we liked writing it!

Please read and reivew!

Amy


	3. Back From Hell

Hey, its Megan! Srry we didnt post this earlier. Hope u like it :)

We do not own Criminal Minds

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The entire ride to the hospital was tiring for everybody as Emily went in and out of consciousness trying to protect herself from all the pain she was feeling. When they finally arrived at the hospital the paramedics quickly unloaded Emily from the bus and hurried her inside. JJ and Hotch following behind closely. The pair were ushered into the waiting room against their wishes and forced to stay until the nurse could report back to them what the doctor had said. A few minutes later the team rushed in just in time for the nurse to let them know that Emily had been taken to surgery and that she would come back out when she heard anything else. The team were not happy with that but at least it was something. They were all squished into tiny little red chairs that were painful to sit in. JJ and Reid sat together on one side with Rossi, Morgan and Hotch on the other one.

"Oh my god," JJ said suddenly thinking of something, all eyes turned to her full of worry "We forgot to tell Garcia, right now she's probably forcing airport security to tell her what happened to the plane,"

"JJ's gotta point, Garcia's gonna kill us if she realizes we didn't call her," Morgan said

"So who's gonna do it?" Reid asked

"Well she's gonna scream at me for killing Emily's hearing, so not me," Morgan said

"I don't want to feel the wrath of Garcia," Reid said as JJ nodded along agreeing with him

"I don't want to miss the doctor or nurse coming out here with information on Emily," Hotch said everybody nodded understandingly and then turned to look at Rossi, the only one left.

"Oh no, I'm not telling her, she's gonna bite my head off," Rossi said looking at Hotch for help

"Dave she's going to hurt us all if we don't tell her, you'll just have to take one for the team," Hotch said. Everybody laughed as Rossi got up grudgingly and sulked down the hall trying to find the food court where there was reception. The team sat talking quietly to each other until Rossi came back looking like he might have to swallow an entire bottle of scotch. The team giggled at his appearance even Hotch which was surprising.

"Oh shut up, after I told her what happened she started panicking and started to swear at Morgan! By the way, I would try and avoid her for as long as humanly possible."

"Ya I was planning on getting us all some coffee when she came," Morgan said making everybody laugh. The team was doing a good job in making the mood lighter and compartmentalize what had happened because they knew when they entered the room with Emily emotions would shine through the borders each of them put up trying to protect themselves from the situation. That was one quality Emily had that drove everyone crazy, they found it very easy to open up to her and that made them share things with her they didn't share with the rest of the team. She would always protect the team because they were her true family and she would rather her get hurt than anybody else on the team. About half an hour had passed and the team were still waiting in those hard red plastic chairs when a burst of colour came through the door and ran through the hallway and a second after that happened Morgan was off to the Cafeteria to go get everybody some coffee.

"Oh my god! How is she? Have you heard any news? Oh my god, I can't believe Morgan was this stupid! Where is he by the way? Are you guys ok? Well of course you're not ok but what happ..." Garcia said until she was interrupted but Hotch grabbing her shoulders and looking deep into her eyes.

"Garcia, calm down, we don't know much yet except for that she was taken in for surgery about an hour ago. Morgan has gone down stairs to get some coffee for everyone. The rest of the team excluding Emily are fine. Does that answer most of your questions?" Hotch said in a very calm and collected voice. Hotch's tone surprised Garcia so all she did was nodded and say "Yes sir," Sitting down in the chair they filled her in on what happened on the case as well as in the airport. When they ended, she said "Poor Emily," not believing what she was told, that her friend almost died because Morgan shot a gun through a car. She sat in silence trying to work it all in her head when Morgan came back into the waiting room, his hands filled with coffee and snacks. After he put them down Garcia ran over to him and enveloped him in a big hug. They stayed there for a few seconds then let go. At first she was angry at him but after the team told her what happened and how he had no choice she understood his decision.

"Thanks Garcia, I needed that,"

"I know! That's why I'm here, to give people hugs," She said with a small smile as she hugged JJ, Reid, Rossi and finally Hotch and Garcia thought he was the one who needed the biggest hug out of all of them. Both Garcia and JJ knew for sure that Hotch and Emily had big crushes on each other even though they would never admit it. Rossi knew as well because he had been told by Hotch a few years ago after the bombing in New York, and with everything she had done for him and Jack during and after Foyet Rossi was surprised he hadn't made a move yet. Interrupting the group's hugging a nurse entered the room and headed over to the team.

"Are you all here for Miss Emily Prentiss?" The team all nodded and so the nurse continued "Miss Prentiss required surgery on her inner ear, not only had her ear drum burst but it wasn't flowing out the way it was supposed to, causing some short term hearing loss, so the doctors fixed that. Miss Prentiss should recover fully as long as she takes care of her ears and does exactly what the doctor says. Do you want me to take you to her room?" The team nodded wanting to see their friend. Breathing a breath out that they had been holding for a while, Emily was going to be ok. On their way there the nurse added "She's still unconscious but the anaesthetic should be wearing off shortly. The seven of them walked down to the hallway to Emily's room and when they saw her threw the window she looked like she had been to hell and back. She looked so frail being hooked up to all the machines. Everybody sat down around her although these chairs were uncomfortable, the ones in the waiting room were much worse. Small talk over took the room trying to avoid the elephant in the room, that being the helpless Emily. Then her eyes started to flutter open and all eyes were on her. Hotch, who was right next to her, gripped her hand tightly but not strong enough to actually hurt her.

"Hey guys," She said with a raspy voice. JJ ran over to pour her a glass of water and held it out to her as she took a few sips. "Thanks. What happened?"

"Well we were hoping you could tell us, we know half the story but not all of it," Reid said softly

"Well the bullets smashing against the concrete made my ears hurt a lot, so much that I couldn't continue to keep up with you and then a boy came up to me and thought I was bait and then another boy came up and then I remember reaching for my gun and shooting it...oh my god! How's the kid? Did he make it?" Everybody looked down or at a wall trying to avoid the question, but Emily knew what that meant. "Damn," She whispered under her breath.

"Emily just remember that you're alive," Reid said

"Reid's right Em, you always worry about other people and never about yourself," JJ said as Emily nodded

"You think you'll be ok Emily?" Rossi asked

"Ya I'll be fine, cause I've got you guys," She said with a smile

"Awww...Emily that was so cute," Garcia said making everyone laugh. Everything was going to be all right.

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Hey it's me, sorry for the wait for this chpater but I hope you like it :D

This chapter is dedicated JayJe for getting me to write this chapter so thanks Jay

Please read and Review!

Amy


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